10 days of waves. Never under 3 feet except yesterday. One day of three hours, most days of four hours, a couple of days of five hours. Shoulder in agony, but surgery tomorrow. Best day? Regular six foot, possibly with occasional eight foot sets. Sucking dry on the rocks, so shallow I scraped my board nose, hands and feet paddling out on an upside down board. Unfortunately it was my second day and I was severely rusty and undergunned so most of the time I was packing myself (and so were the others sitting deep). One local got a few classics, most of the rest of us paddled for them and chickened out as it sucked dry and ledges and drops appeared in the face. A few nasty wipeouts and rock bounces. Some absolute monstrous freight trains that had everyone scrambling for the deep water. Felt like Teahupoo. Me and most of the others snuck the in-betweeners, where there was some water on the reef. Epic holiday. No pics, 'cause I suck.

Not Lembongan.

Other memorable moments? A guy sitting in the same pack on the big day paddling for his first wave, a 6'er on his backhand. Right next to me he took off, grabbed rail and set his line, super committed. He had a good line. A 3' step appeared in the face from the dry-sucking rocks and he free-fell sideways to massive wipeout. Came up with his board in two pieces, first wave. He floated around the lineup clearly rattled for about 30min before heading in. When I went in, he was just about psyched up to take out his backup board.

Also on the big day, one guy got a nice 4'er from the same spot we were sitting, deep. He headed for the table with a nice mid-line when suddenly it just turned into a series of steps and ledges for about 20m as it hit the shallow table. Nothing he could do, just free-fell to his doom. That was the story of the day - some waves lined up through that section, others that looked the same from takeoff would buckle and pitch all over the place.

An English guy heading straight out the line of the long bombie halfway to the break on his windsurfer in the afternoon. Dunno why. Cleared a couple of waves, then went over one to find a set wave wall of foam, way taller than his mast. He couldn't do anything so just stylishly went face first into it. Came up to nothing and had a 400m swim over shallow reef in to shore to find his board washed up on rocks. No sign of mast or sail. I watched for ages and it never appeared again.

Same guy a week later was out at the same bombie on his backup windsurfer and looked down to see a 5' sea snake wrapped around his mast. Right about then he tacked or gybed or whatever they do to head back in to safety and fell off and lost sight of the snake. He had a good sense of humour telling the story.

I wish the big day had been either later in the trip, I'd had a bigger board, or a higher tide. None of the other sessions were quite as intimidating. Just that one day with the water going from the super deep water out the back to the ledge was spooky. The biggest ones were unrideable. Instead of sitting behind the main table, I should've retreated down the line and picked them off from the shoulder.

subasurf said...

****ing seabreeze. I wish a guy good luck for his surgery and get red thumbed for it.
You people crack me up

Fixed it

Legion said...

10 days of waves. Never under 3 feet except yesterday. One day of three hours, most days of four hours, a couple of days of five hours. Shoulder in agony, but surgery tomorrow. Best day? Regular six foot, possibly with occasional eight foot sets. Sucking dry on the rocks, so shallow I scraped my board nose, hands and feet paddling out on an upside down board. Unfortunately it was my second day and I was severely rusty and undergunned so most of the time I was packing myself (and so were the others sitting deep). One local got a few classics, most of the rest of us paddled for them and chickened out as it sucked dry and ledges and drops appeared in the face. A few nasty wipeouts and rock bounces. Some absolute monstrous freight trains that had everyone scrambling for the deep water. Felt like Teahupoo. Me and most of the others snuck the in-betweeners, where there was some water on the reef. Epic holiday. No pics, 'cause I suck.

Sounds bloody heavy Legion! Good to hear you made it back in one piece and best of luck with the surgery.

bakesy said...

just got back from my first Indo experience, had the big day first just like Legian went to Sri Lanka's off Club Med Nusa Dua, very sizey right handers 8-10 on the sets and the most power I've experienced in 25 years of surf, add to that the resident Tigery seen cruising through the sneaker sets!! shortened session but awesome first wave. Bingan in the arvo, classic 4-6 and perhaps the meanest crowd I've been in since Bindoon Rock, French, Brazzo's.,locals, Aussies and Saffa's all scratching for waves got seven in two hours but barrelled on each one. Bingan next day three surfs awesome crowd, Aussies and locals sharing and laughing in the consistent 4ft, what a wave, so mechanical but how's the reef!! got my Bingan tattoo and applied lime remedy at lunch, fark.. lembongan for three days, absolute bliss what a chilled place surfed twice a day at shippies, learnt the lineup after a couple of sessions and had it had around 4-6 one arvo with a few boys from the east, very cool crowd sharing and hooting. Lombok for four days, three tripds to Grupuk, Ekas and a spot that's un named. Last day(tuesday) had outside Ekas smoking with a group of Japanese lads that used a local to tell them when to paddle!! told him he had a good job and he gave me a knowing smile, group of 5 Perth chicks rocked up!! one came out for a few but went in as the others wanted something a bit easier, left me and mate with the set waves to ourselves, the perfect Indo experience until the trip back, for those of you who have done this trip I'm thinking of buying them a 20ft tinnie with a 50hp 4 stroke as that journey was nerve racking to say the least, how those boats handle a bit of swell is in the lap of the god's I reckon!! thanks to those that offered tips before the trip it made things a lot easier.putting together a vid and will post when done.

Nice mate, a great Bali trip

bakesy said...

yep going again next year but will give Bali a miss, plenty of positive comments about Sumbawa from crew we met, have you been there Doggie? Also, is the Bali Blues real?

Na not that way, only Mentawais and Bali

hey doggie, is the mentawai's all pretty heavy breaks? or is there some intermediate style breaks around?

i aint ready for any 8-10 sets over shallow rocks and reef

Sham1984 said...

hey doggie, is the mentawai's all pretty heavy breaks? or is there some intermediate style breaks around?

i aint ready for any 8-10 sets over shallow rocks and reef

Na, there are some real easy stuff over there. Beng bengs is a real good left but super soft on take off and really hi performance down the line.
Pitstops is a right hander, bit steeper on take off but an awesome right, so fast down the line that one.
A fave was burger world, awesome wave with all types of sections. Fast take off the fly down the line and then in inside section with a nice little barrel to finish off.
Lots of others but they were least intimadating of the bunch

Sham1984 said...

doggie said...

Sham1984 said...

hey doggie, is the mentawai's all pretty heavy breaks? or is there some intermediate style breaks around?

i aint ready for any 8-10 sets over shallow rocks and reef

Na, there are some real easy stuff over there. Beng bengs is a real good left but super soft on take off and really hi performance down the line.
Pitstops is a right hander, bit steeper on take off but an awesome right, so fast down the line that one.
A fave was burger world, awesome wave with all types of sections. Fast take off the fly down the line and then in inside section with a nice little barrel to finish off.
Lots of others but they were least intimadating of the bunch

sweet thanks! it does look awesome!

If I can find them I will post a pic, but look through this thread -

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Surfing/Shortboards/Im-goin-to-the-Mentawais-in-Sept/?page=8

Sham1984 said...

OMG those photos in that thread! Froth-ville

It was a fun trip

Well...a certain metro beach break (which shall remain nameless), that only works a few times a year, was most certainly working today.
Some seriously quality waves (mainly lefts) peeling away, with plenty that were overhead. Lineout was quite thin but word spread and it got packed.

Not posting pics because it would give it away in a blink.

No offence taken...
It's not a secret spot...but it is a spot that only works well less than a dozen times a year so people rarely ever check it. Any other metro beachie I will name...not this one. It's certainly not a old locals only secret, but when it does start working I certainly wont be waving the flag and dropping smoke signals.

Having said that...I'd be surprised if most of the guys here aren't already on it. I know at least one other here that knew to check it out

Yeah it was nice having the spot today almost to myself. Only a few other guys out...but you could see the guys in the carparks on their phones calling in the crew.

Watched a group of 8 longboarders all rock up at once and paddle out. It spelled the end for the sesh.

Paddlepig, its kinda like an unwritten law, or internet/forum etiquette that a surfer is fairly discrete about certain sessions. Yes, even if its a metro location.

One can still get an uncrowded metro wave from time to time if you're in the know... even if its only 30mins before the masses find out. That 30mins can be worth 3-4 hours in a crowd.

Im at the point now where I now never say anything about a good session except in face to face dialogue with a friend.

There are no secrets anymore, everyone knows that...but there are still possibilities for an uncrowded surf and I'll go the extra yard to get one.

If someone wants to spell out their sesh...well, thats up to them. If someone wants to be discrete about it, where ever it may be...they have the right to keep it under wraps.

The good old surfing principles of etiquette seem to be lost these days

good onya PP!